This time, the "hot" thing isn't a metaphor. It is literal. Seems that the chat room prevents proper multitasking on Windows and Linux systems. Whenever I enter, it keeps throttling the CPU to maximum performance (1.60 GHz) and back to idle/powersave (800 MHz). Whenever I type, it pushes it to 1.60 GHz until I finish, which makes the temperature rise and the computer gets hot (not overly hot, but hot). Even when idling, it keeps throttling the CPU to maximum power and back to idle like once a second. I usually solve the problem by switching the CPU to powersave mode (that is, 800 MHz always) while I use the chat room. I've identified the chat room as the problem, as it happens with all browsers and only when I'm using the chat room. Under Linux I tested it. On a particularly crowded day in the chat room, it was keeping my CPU at 1.60 GHz all the time as messages were coming constantly. So, I opened a terminal and typed in: frederick@canopus-lx:~$ killall -s STOP firefox-bin which froze the Firefox process (and therefore the chat) momentarily. Immediately, the CPU was automatically throttled back to 800 MHz. Then I revived the frozen Firefox: frederick@canopus-lx:~$ killall -s CONT firefox-bin Again immediately, the CPU was throttled to 1.60 GHz and stayed like that until I exited the chat room. Weird...
The chatroom uses Flash (lots of it) which I guess must be father processor intensive. Since I know nothing about Flash all I can do is see if there is a newer version and if it is any better. On my Vista installation with the chatroom closed and Firefox open I get about 2% CPU usage, with the chatroom open it's around 8% and when someone posts and it plays the sound it peaks at about 20% momentarily. That's with a 1.83GHz dual core Centrino Duo and 1GB of RAM on Vista Home Premium. I guess with a slower CPU the effect is more pronounced.
There is an update from 4.7.11 to 4.7.12, so I doubt it changes anything significant. A couple of people in the chatroom said it lags their games and does slow things a bit, so it's not just you.
I love the chatroom, and it's way better than the ### equivalent. The ### equivalent repeatedly locks up my entire computer, and it's external anyway, which I don't like. However, I do find that if I try to do anything to it - like change the frame sizes, and such - it freezes up. Also, as a post is made, sometimes if I'm typing my computer will freeze for a brief second, and then output the string of characters as a block afterwards. Not much of an effect, but it proves that it's taking too much processor time. After all, any noticeable effect means a massive amount of lines of code being executed. My comuter can deal with 3 billion in a second, after all. I don't suffer many problems, but as I said, my computer's CPU runs at 3.0GHz, so I don't really have CPU problems with anything.
i have the same problem, my cpu runs at 87% capacity when i have IE7, emptyclosets forum and chatroom open with afew ppl in there talking, if i try anythin else then it goes to 100% no matter what it is, i have vista btw and a cheap ass laptop cus my sis cudnt afford anythin better. the cpu normally runs at 2% tho and about 6% with IE7 open and afew of my onlines games up aswell.
There is also an alternative AJAX based front-end available for FlashChat, for another $5. There is a demo here http://chat.tufat.com/stateless/ajax/ (any name, no password). Can a few of you please try it and see if it works OK for you? On my Firefox installation the sounds don't work with it. The readme for the demo says it works on Internet Explorer and Firefox only, not Opera, Safari or anything else. If you think it's worthwhile I'll install the demo on our chatroom and if it still looks good I'll buy it. Note that it is an alternative front-end and the Flash one will still be available too. I should be able to set it up so you have a choice. You would be in the same chat whichever one you use.
It works fine for me, it doesn't use nearly as many resources. However it is as it says, doesn't work on Konqueror, even with another user agent (masked as IE or Firefox) You could create a script which automatically redirects users to the chat based on user agent. Like: IE or Firefox => redirected to AJAX chat Anything else => Flash
Try this http://www.emptyclosets.com/forum/chatroom/ajax/. This is the lightweight AJAX front-end on our chatroom. If you open it in a NEW browser window it should ask for the username and password, then you can use it OK. If you go there from the current browser window though it doesn't seem to show your name or let you post. So the automatic logging in from within the forum doesn't work right yet. Obviously I'll try to fix that if it's generally OK. It seems to have a few other problems too, with private chats.
I'm away tomorrow so I probably won't get back to this until Monday evening (UK time). Let us know how it goes if you get a chance to try it.
If you click the link and find yourself shown as "null" and unable to post, click the red dot at the top right to log out then log back in again. The automatic login from the forum doesn't work properly with that link (at least not with Firefox on Vista).
